john sununu, the voice of the romney campaign. >> when you take a look at colin powell, you have to wonder where there's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states -- >> shut it. it's a distraction from this. >> it's essentially let's cut taxes and compensate for that with other things, but that compensation does not cover all of the cuts. >> and this. ♪ >> yes, when you can't find the right note, try a different bait. >> if he spent the early years in hawaii smoking something, the next set of years in ind know

sha. i'm not familiar with exactly precisely what i said, but i stand by what i said, whatever it was. snoof ♪ . happy friday to you. we're 11 days out from the election and with the roar of the rallies, the ads and the bus tours growing ever louder, team romney decided it was time to create a bit of white noise, sununu style. other a certain key endorsement that did not go the way of mr. romney. >> when you take a look at colin powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states, i applaud colin for standing with him. >> yes, that was former new hampshire governor john sununu,

co-chair of the romney campaign, patting the head of general colin powell for endorsing his fellow mocha-hued countryman. or wait, are they countrymen? >> he has no idea how the american system functions and we shouldn't be surprised about that because he spent his early years in hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in indonesia -- and another set of years in indonesia and, frankly, when he came to the u.s., he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure. >> right. well, despite the president being a kenyan indonesian pot smoking communist, a republican general has to endorse him because they're the same color. they're brothers from another mother. it couldn't possibly be that a former secretary of state actually put some thought into his endorsement, could it? >> not only am i not comfortable with what governor romney is proposing for his economic plan,

i have concerns about his views on foreign policy. sometimes i don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have and he gets advice from his campaign staff that he then has to adjust or modify as he goes along. >> are you sure that general powell is saying it's because the president is black? i'm just not hearing that. >> there are other issues as well, not just the economy and foreign policy. i'm more comfortable with president obama and his administration when it comes to issues like what are we going to do about climate? what are we going to do about immigration? what are we going to do about education? lots of things like that. >> right. the economy, foreign policy, climate change, immigration, education. i guess that must be code for black, black, black, brother get back, my homes is black. good thing we've got a scholar like sununu to translate the general's remarks. let's get right to our panel. in washington, michelle cottle

of "newsweek" and the daily beast. msnbc political analyst karen finy, and in philadelphia professor james peterson of lehigh university. karen, if i can start with you, mr. sununu has distinguished himself as a co-chair of the romney campaign by being a sulfurous mass of sweat, bitterness, and halitosis, but isn't he using race here simply to get us away from the stark truth, the truth, that general powell believes mitt romney doesn't have a single policy that's worthy of support? >> absolutely, and we've actually seen this before. remember earlier in the campaign they tried to marginalize bill clinton when they recognize what an impact he was having. let's be very clear, john sununu left the federal government in disgrace. colin powell is one of our most decorated american heroes. he is a statesman in this country. he is well-respected not only in the private and public sector, he's respected and beloved by people who are white, black,

pink, brown, male, female, if you're in the service, not -- >> he's respected around the world. he's respected around the world. >> oh, you know, martin, i'm just trying to stick to our little old country here. >> okay. >> but point being, when general colin powell says i'm not so sure about this guy's foreign policy, that's somebody you pay attention to. so, of course, they're trying to distract from that. they don't want us to pay attention to the fact that someone who is very serious, very thoughtful, and in a very significant position having served as secretary of state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, i mean, you name it, someone like that to say i'm concerned about where he would go with the economy. i find his foreign policy a little bit too all over the place. i don't think he's really thought it through. that's something that's going to make those voters who are not yet decided stop and take pause, and when they hear that, what the romney campaign wants you to think is, oh, no, no, no, it's just because he's black. those black folks, they stick together. >> professor peterson, if mr. sununu is correct, then why

didn't african-americans run to support herman cain instead of actually telling him to go back to being commander in chief of pizza? >> well, listen, martin, despite whatever people may think or not think, black folk are not monolithic. we do not vote monolithically. we vote the issues and the candidates in terms of their character and their stability and their ability to work on behalf of the issues that we think are important. karen is also right, you're right here, this is the politics of distraction. there's a few other things they want to distract your attention from. number one, general powell represents moderate democrats who are more centrist. he moves more toward the independent vote. it's a really important endorsement. it's also important for the black community because black folk respect colin powell even though we've had our issue was him in terms of his relationship with the bush administration. we have a tremendous amount of respect for his service and the

ways in which he's honored our country with that service. it speaks volumes to the base, independents, and to moderate republicans. >> michelle, sununu issued a statement much so-called clarification. quote, colin powell is a friend and i suspect the endorsement decision he made, and i do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies. but that is not what he said in the interview, is it, michelle? >> no, it's not. this is a great just full-on reversal but at this point i'm not sure why we would be surprised. you're talking about john sununu being the voice of the romney campaign, and i think he's clearly been one of the craziest voices in support of the romney campaign. >> michelle, he's co-chair of the romney campaign. >> i know, but he is also consistently out there making outrageous statements. that's what he does.

he is their kind of rabid attack dog. >> that's exactly the point. the point is that time and again he has said things that are disgraceful. that they should be ashamed of, and instead they keep putting him out there because they know they can count on him to do this kind of thing. of course he's the one they want to go out and denigrate. again, i'm going to keep saying this, general colin powell is an american statesman. he is a hero around the world. he's someone who has worked with both the public and private s t secto sectors. to try to take down someone like that and delegitimize the endorsement of someone like, that that's shameful. i think the romney campaign new exactly what they were doing when they sent him out there to do it. >> professor, the president was asked to respond on the michael smerconish radio show. listen to what he said. >> any suggestion that general powell would make such a profound statement in such an important election based on anything other than what he thought was going to be best for

america i think doesn't make much sense. >> he's right, isn't he, professor? >> absolutely right. it doesn't make any sense. we shouldn't ignore the fact there's been a lot of black noise this week coming from people on the right around issues of race. if you look at sarah palin, ann coulter, sununu was in here, donald trump with his show me your papers crap all over again. what's happening here is there's a loosely organized strategy to use the politics of distraction around race but also to sort of gin up this idea that this president is a black president. sadly, there will be a few folk out here who are voting who will still vote along some of those racist racial lines, and they're speaking to those folk when they're doing these different antics. >> professor peterson, here is the problem, 60% of white voters are going with romney, and 82% of norn whites are going with the president. this suggests that however repugnant sununu is, it is having an effect.

this is dividing the electorate. this is what they're doing. >> well, the electorate has already been somewhat divided, martin, and it's sad we're still in this place in america, in american politics. if you look at white male demographics, you can see some folks voting against their self-interest economically, you understand where we are. these kind of comments reentrench us in these sort of rati racialized discourse. it's not a pretty picture but you have to understand people of color and poor folk and working class folk are voting their interest. obama and the democratic party represents not all of their interests but the best interests they have at the presidential level. >> that's true, isn't it, michelle? >> i think that there's been a big split in who the campaigns have been targeting. from the beginning romney's people have tended to be older, white voters, a lot heavily on the male side. married women. but they have to worry about kind of getting their people to

the polls, the democrats do. the assumption is that the republicans will always turn out. the democrats have a much broader base that people see as their voters, so -- >> like the entire country which is, you know, like actually the formation of the america as it is today as opposed to 1943. >> that's right. >> and that's exactly the problem i think -- we've talked about this, martin, several times over the last couple years. that's the problem -- >> shrinking republican base. >> exactly. they're catering to a shrinking base and the republican party after this election is going to have to ask itself if they're willing to pull the covers out from over their eyes and recognize we are a diverse country and you cannot be a national political party if you're going to write off not just 47%, but african-americans and latinos and women. i just want to make one final point though. it's so important. >> please. >> other thing that's so devastating i think about general powell's endorsement of president obama, this is somebody who knows something about what's going on in the middle east and the iraq war

after the bush administration let him go out there and lie to the american people. >> just a bit. >> so point being, when he says i have taken a look at what obama is doing, which he said in his statement, i have taken a look at what romney is proposing, and i don't think that's the right way to go, this is -- he has been there. he has been a part of this, the beginnings of this war frankly going back to gulf war one. this is somebody who has deep knowledge about a war that has basically been a part of tanking our economy that we're finally digging ourselves out of. >> thank you so much karen finney, michelle cottle, and professor james peterson who rushed to the studio. thank you, sir. >> thanks, mare tin. next, another day, another day without interviews from mitt romney. more bs from the men unafraid of the tough issues. >> governor sununu how are you, from the conan o'brien show. governor, please, just clarify for me, so you're in favor of smaller government and larger cheeseburgers. governor, which would you rather have, your country back or

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you night think mitt romney would be forced to break his silence with the press after the president called him a -- well, it rhymes with bull spitter, but, no, he hasn't personally responded to those comments, which came in an interview in the latest edition of "rolling stone" magazine. rather, he seems to prefer a different approach, indicated to the press tuesday that romney and ryan are done taking questions and will probably not submit to any sit-down interviews between now and november the 6th. mind you, they never answered the questions anyway, so maybe they're just saving us the time. joining us in washington a julian epstein, a democratic

strategist, and here in new york, michael hastings, a correspondent for buzz feed and an author. julian, we were told to expect a major policy speech on economics from mitt romney today. i listened to it. in fact, it was the same broken record on tax cuts and less regulation speech that i can give you blind drunk word for word. is that all he has to offer after six years of campaigning? >> yes. i would say weak tea in a new kettle. and this is all, in fact, romney has to offer, and i think this is where democrats have to focus the debates. the republicans and romney have nothing to offer on the economy other than the tax plan, which even if you concede the arguments he makes, won't really do anything for the economy or for jobs. he wants to keep tacks at 15% of gdp. that's where they are. he wants to lower rates and earned deductions. that's not an economic policy. democrats also need to continue the focus on this question of choice, that romney and the republicans want to tyke a

woman's right to choose away. that's very important given where the nments have been going on the women's vote. romney doesn't have a foreign policy other than when he's challenged by the president to say, me, too, i agree with you. it was a very weak tea speech and i think it tees up for the president and democrats to draw a sharp contrast on the economy, on women's rights, and the lack of a foreign policy. >> michael, in mitt's place to answer all the press questions is john sununu. listen to how he framed the campaign's response to richard mourdock's rape comments. >> rape is a heinous vial act and when mourdock said that, romney immediately condemned that. >> let me read you the campaign statement. immediately says sununu. governor romney disagrees with richard mourdock and mr. mourdock's comments do not reflect governor romney's view.

we disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest but still support him. signed andrea saul. does that sound like condemnation? >> not condemnation enough considering mourdock said. >> shut out to my editor that conducted that interview. >> mr. brinkley. >> the romney campaign noticed the less romney talked to the press, the less people liked him. after this built up this momentum, the momentum that the obama campaign stopped ten days ago, they don't want to jeopardize that. it seems crazy considering they're not coming out stronger considering how many problems he's had with women -- >> hang on a second, mike. i thought the more we know someone, the more we trust them, the more we learn about them. that's the process. you're saying the less we know about this man, the more likely he is to be elected. >> i think they got their lead, got back into this race, and they're trying to protect that at all costs, and keeping away

from journalists is a good way to protect that. >> julian, here is mr. romney when the question is posed to him directly several times about his association with richard mourdock. take a listen. >> governor, do you wish that senator mourdock would pull that ad? >> which way are we going. >> governor, do you disavow mourdock's comments on rape. >> we're told they don't duck the tough issues. he's in a diner, he runs for cover. >> right. let me just push back first on michael's point that they're in the lead. i don't think they're in the lead. my favorite tweet yesterday was the polls don't mean a thing unless you're talking swing. certainly when you're talking about places like ohio and some of other swings states, i don't think romney is in the lead. secondly, i think this is a question of character. for those undecided voters who are trying to figure out how they want to make up their mind, often character is an issue.

here is a guy that will not take a position and will certainly not disassociate himself from people like mourdock the way he didn't from rush limbaugh when he referred to sandra fluke as a slu t. when he didn't disassociate himself even last night from the obnoxious comments that john sununu made about colin powell. here is a guy who is -- does not have the courage to stand up and take action based on what he says his convictions are in the same way he wouldn't stand up to obama when he had criticized him for the entire campaign on his foreign policy. then he stood next to him eye to eye and backed down on virtually every issue. this is a guy with a character challenge. >> this man has very limited moral fiber, doesn't he, when it comes to these matters? >> well, i think what was most telling about the bs comment in "rolling stone" is the obama campaign -- >> you have already referred to your own magazine. >> but literally the obama campaign's response to it was, well, yeah, basically that's what we think.

it's a trust issue, right? >> right. >> so i don't -- i think the question -- david plouffe, obama's senior adviser wrote a great book called "youaudacity win." if romney wins there's going to be a book called "audacity to spin." from an objective point of view you look at the positions governor romney has taken, he's taken different positions down the line on all different issues right on cue. i don't know if it's a moral fine irissue or an amazingly brash move from a politician. there's something almost -- you almost have to admire it to stand eye to eye and do that. >> that's a matter of opinion. michael and julian, thank you very much indeed. neck, the president prepares to take actual questions again. stay with us. remember, we're playinxt, the ps to take actual questions again. stay with us. by losing, we win. win what?

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continuing his nonstop schedule of appearances today with an interview with mtv tonight where he will take questions from young voters. a demographic that was critical to his election four years ago. nbc's mike viqueira joins us live from the white house. mike, i understand the president has just wrapped up a radio interview with michael smerconish. here is what he had to say about working with republicans, lord help us, in his second term. >> i'll go to capitol hill. i'm wash john boehner's car. i'll watch mitch mcconnell's dog. i will do whatever is required to get this done. >> mike, in your considered opinion how is that goss to go down with messrs. boehner and mcconnell. >> reporter: this just in, mitch mb konl doesn't have a dog. they'll have to work out something different in that personal services contract the president is ready to offer the speaker and the senate majority

leader. people are actually starting to get very nervous about that. you may have seen a press conference with ceos and everybody on down saying this could have catastrophic effects. the president says i'll walk mcconnell's dog, wash john boehner's car. both of those individuals are driven around by the u.s. capitol police's finest wherever they are. so they're going to have to get something done. another interesting point here, there was another interview, i heard you just talking about this interview with "rolling stone" and what the president said about mitt romney being a quote, unquote bser, we use the term advisedly. he was asked about that, he said it was a casual comment in a conversation after an interview, but the point is, the president says, i say what i mean, and i mean what i say. so there you go. >> there you have it. as do you, mike. mike viqueira, thank you so much. we should note that today it's secretary of state hillary clinton's 65th birthday.

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from living la vida low ka to the donald needing a hug. the week in review. >> no, no, no, candy, come on. >> you probably got romnesia. >> let me at him dad. >> figure out which of the players is best and take him out early. >> the edge will go to the candidate wearing i killed osama bin laden t-shirt. >> social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s. >> attacking me is not an agenda. >> we have fewer horses and bayonets. >> the president began whey called an apology tour. >> this has been the biggest whopper. >> i got something. >> obama will bow to anyone. he bowed to romney's grandson. >> romney didn't do anything. nothing. >> i think romney's leaning

obama. >> hold on now, sparky. >> we saw mitt romney is ready to be a great president. >> who are you? >> hard working taxpayers deserve a common sense tax code. >> bordering on gigantic announcement. >> got a little proposition. >> we need somebody like donald trurp on our side. >> least transparent president. >> donald trump essentially trying to publicly extort the president. >> tremendous praise for the most part. >> this all dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya. >> i'm supporting richard mourdock. >> it is something that god intended to happen. >> days without a gop rape mention board. >> it's a call above my pay grade. >> rape is rape. >> if i have to listen to one more gray-faced man with a $2 haircut explain to me what rape is. >> 6% registered voters undecided. make up your mind! >> i don't blame that baby for crying. she just realized what it means if romney gets elected. it's okay. he's not going to get elected. >> no sleep. i'm opt stick. >> la la la, we can't hear you.

>> i'll be voting for he and for vice president joe biden. >> when you have somebody of your own race. >> ba, ba, ba. >> when asked why he didn't want to make more public statements, romney was like, um, because i want to win. >> ♪ >> election day, election day! >> any chance he wouldn't vote for himself? >> he needs an i.d. >> you're right. hold on a second. i've got my driver's license. >> i'm sorry. >> let's get right to our panel. we're joined by liliana gil valletta and msnbc political analyst jonathan alter. author and columnist for the bloomberg view. john, we had a speech today from the great mitt romney which was described as a major economic policy address which was nothing more that be we've been hearing for the last six years. and in that speech he attacked the president's stimulus. interestingly, he chose to give that speech at a company in iowa that received $650,000 in

stimulus money. so if the stimulus was so terrible why is he giving is speech like that in a place like this. >> they're all hypocrites on the republican side regarding the stimulus. joe biden confronted ryan with the fact he'd written letters had questioning stimulus money. very few of the governors turned any stimulus money down. if it wasn't haftion any effect, if it was useless and terrible as they all say on the campaign, why did they take the money, right? but it's only one of many hypocrisies we've seen this year and i'm not really all that surprised. a big flagrant when they go down hypocrisy road and think it will just be those of us on msnbc who will care. >> lilana, do you think latino voters will be persuaded by this kind of hypocrisy and double-headedness? because if you look at the swing state polls, they show huge

leads along latinos in nevada and colorado both for the president, but he has to get turnout, doesn't he? >> absolutely. >> from that community. >> and that is probably the biggest thing we as a community are pushing for because while there are 21 million eligible latino voters, not all of them are registered. you will see maybe 50% or 60% of them showing at the polls. clearly there is an affinity between the democratic rhetoric and policy and outreach to the community, but we need to make sure that people go vote, and that's why organizes like voto latino are all pushing for us to get to the polls. it's going to mean nothing, only math on paper, unless we go and vote. >> indeed. john, you heard mr. sununu last night referencing the great general colin powell suggesting that the only reason he voted for the president was because he looks like him. and even john mccain came out today and told "national review"

it was colin powell who got us into iraq, so i guess it wasn't george w. bush, dick cheney, done rumsfeld, but it was colin powell. >> at least mccain wasn't racist like john sununu who it's never mentioned, the guy was thrown out of the white house -- >> oh, we've mentioned it today. >> good, i'm glad you did. >> of course. but you see this attempt to rubbish the endorsement from a man who actually knows something about the world, is something of an american hero, and so what happens is they have to denude the endorsement. >> and what's happening to mccain is he's getting a lot of pressure from the right because you saw that he thought that mourdock -- wasn't even an apology, mourdock's statement wasn't nearly good enough and suddenly turns around and says maybe it was good enough. so mccain, you know, is in a position that he's familiar with, which is that he's getting heat from his republican friends, but what's surprising is he and colin powell have been

close for a long time, and i think what this reflects is the bitterness that mccain feels from 2008 when, to his great dismay and surprise, colin powell endorsed barack obama. >> indeed. lilana, we've talked about the latino vote in of two crucial states but mitt romney has an ace up heiss sleeve when it comes to winning votes across the widest demographic spectrum. take a listen. ♪ america god shed his grace on me ♪ ♪ and crown thy good >> meatloaf who appears to be between a psychiatric breakdown and a spiritual epiphany, will that swing voters, that kind of performance? >> i have no comment. there are taste and things out there for everybody.

you got to throw in some salsa merengue to really get to us and get to the heart. >> what do you think the turnout is going to be like for the latino vote? >> when you look at the numbers, you know, i can give you my own personal opinion, but it's evident as it is now that there's a 3 to 1 ratio of latinos supporting obama versus romney. a lot of it has to do with the constant and it's not just romney, the party as a whole is per sifed as anti-immigrant which is unfortunate. also the issue was women do resonate with women as well. so, of course, it's -- there's just too much to fix, especially with the immigration issue and the tea party having been so drastic into making it seem as if, you know, i don't care, kick everybody out, when in reality some of the republicans are trying to have a solution but we still have yet to hear it. >> indeed. >> so we'll see. the turnout will be there because in the key states there's three swing states where

latinos represent between 13% to 15% of those voters that will go and vote and that's significant to determine who wins. >> indeed. liliana gil valletta, jonathan alter, thank you both. next, what does the obama team think of mr. john sununu? stay with us. >> this president wants to bring the country together. he wants to bring the country together. >> by saying that mitt romney is a bser? >> he wants -- >> he's created more racial division than any administration in history. >> come on, come on. team think of mr. john sununu? in history. new prilosec otc wildberry

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and at this point, my friends, i am officially polled out. so let's see if one of the president's top lieutenants can help us. we're joined by patrick gaspart executive director of the democratic national committee and i must say, sir, we're delighted to have you. >> great to be on. >> we look at eight national tracking polls that are published every single day. that's our job, we look at it. tell me, patrick, what is your internal polling telling you about the state of play? >> well, first thing i would say is folks should not ride the poll eer coaster. we have been very clear from guy one that we thought this was going to be an exceedingly close election, certainly much closer than 2008 and that's bearing fruit, but we also are clear that despite all the head fakes from the romney campaign, that there's no evidence of any momentum on their side, and contrary to that, we're seeing evidence that the president's message and our organizing is taking hold in places like ohio,

indiana -- i'm sorry, ohio, iowa, nevada, places where americans are already casting votes and where the president is clearly ahead in early voting. >> patrick, tell us now, is the president going to win ohio or not? >> the president is absolutely going to win ohio. i say that withen an exclamation point. >> you would bet your salary on it? >> i would bet everything on it. i would put all my poker chips in the middle of that one, you can take it to the bank. we're going to win ohio. we're winning ohio now and we're going to win it on november 6th because of all that the president did on the auto recovery, all he's done on manufacturing, all he's done to bring our troops back home and invest in infrastructure here in places like columbus and cleveland and cincinnati. folks in the buckeye state know where we came from, where we are now, and they know what the president's vision is for a second term. >> the truth also though, patrick, is the president would appear to have problems with white voters, particularly white men. perhaps some of his problems have been caused by people like

this. take a listen. >> that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're provide of being president of the united states, i applaud sow lynn for standing with him. >> setting aside that's a sulfuric mass of hate and bitterness coming from that gentleman, that's what's affecting the electorate, isn't it? they have worked that card and it's having an effect. >> you know what? i actually don't think it's having an effect, and we all know john sununu -- >> but white men are going with romney 2 to 1. >> let's be careful about where we're getting those data points from. first, john sununu has a history of saying incredibly reprehensible things and he's a national co-chair of romney's

campaign. he should be called upon to denounce -- >> romney will never denounce that. >> just like he will never denounce the senate candidate who is saying horrible things about women and rape. i think there's a history going back at least 40 years that democrats in general have perhaps not done as well as republicans have with that cohort. however, we are incredibly well-positioned. we're finding we're attracting support close to the levels we did in 2008. and unlike mr. 47%, i'm not going to sit here and slice and dice the electorate for you. what i will tell you is in every community we're finding support for our president, support for his message, and we are continuing with our positive vision as opposed to the kinds of things that john sununu traffics in. >> and finally if, might ask you about the first lady's early voting skit with jimmy kimmel last night. tell bus that. we're showing it to our viewers right now. do you like that? do you think that's a good

thing? >> it's great. look, the first lady, who is about as great an ambassador as there could be for voter participation, is out there telling folks they need to get engaged, need to be involved during the early vote period and compare that to the other side that has done everything they could to eliminate early vote days to make it harder for people to participate. while mitt romney is running around -- what was he, in iowa giving some speech about change, running around iowa like professor harold hill with some flim nam deal, the first lady and others on our side are out there getting the vote out and getting a message out about what we need to do to bring americans together. >> i expect your salary because you said that the president is going to win ohio. all of your salary. >> i'm expecting to you fete me a great dinner in new york. >> you'll be lucky. next, an issue on the ballot that truly affects all of us. first, julia boorstin has the cnbc market wrap. good afternoon. >> hello to you, martin. let's look at how stocks stand going into the weekend.

we have the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p 500 pretty much flat for the day. the dow is down about -- over 200 fountsz fpoints for the wee. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

if mitt romney is elected, he's promised to send virtually every issue aside from abortion back to the states. >> balance budget by eliminating unnecessary programs, by sends programs back to states. taking the federal dollars, bringing them back to the states. take some programs and we'd give it to the states to run. >> one of those states, california, is set to vote on labeling genetically engineered food so consumers can know what they're eating.

in responsing a gri chemical companies are spending millions to oppose this attempt at transparen transparency. >> there are some things you just shouldn't know about. >> like what's in your food. >> why would you want to know what's in your food? >> you shouldn't know whether your food is genetically modified. >> know if you're buying genetically engineered food is not your right. >> since he's done with answering questions, it's impossible to know where mitt romney stands on the issue. todd stanhouse represents the yes on 37 right to know campaign in california. he joins us live there sacramento. good afternoon. two biggest producer of genetically modified foods are monsanto and dupont. why would they resist informing consumers about what they are eating when 61 other nations, including china and india, already label these products? >> well, that's a fair question, martin. it's a really fair question.

i mean, at the end of the day all we're talking about here is a label. one can only assume that for monsanto and dupont they simply don't want consumers to know what's in their food, which quite frankly, is a stunning indictment of their credibility. >> why do they not want to know, tom? why do they not want us to know, todd? >> they're fearful, i think, that if consumers do know what's in their food, whether it's insecticides or bacteria or viruses, but we're really talking about genetically engineered ingredients, food that's altered in a laboratory, they're fearful people won't buy it. >> right. we have a republican running for president who, as you know, will say and do almost anything to win, and whoa wants the states to decide virtually everything, as i said earlier apart from abortion. if you win this on november the 6th, do you think a romney 5d mrtion would step in and try to reverse it to favor the agri

chemical giants? >> honestly, that's a tough call to make. one would only hope that mitt romney would side with the consumers' right to know, with the families' right to know what's in the food we're eating and feeding our children. i would only add that there's been a lot said about mitt romney's transparency, and, quite frankly, he's a model of transparency compared to our food supply right now, and that's really what makes prop 37 and six simple words on a food label so consumers can make that choice for themselves so important. >> final question, todd, will you win? >> we're pulling out all the stops, martin. we've got more than a million families and consumers that signed onto a petition to get this on the ballot. basically every single faith, labor, environmental, consumer advocacy group is supporting this measure as well as some of the leading public health associations. the other side is trying to obfuscate, but, quite frankly, i

think california consumers are smart and they want to know what's in their food. >> i totally agree. todd stanhouse, thank you, sir. and we'll be right back. >> thank you, martin. my doctor told me calcium is efficiently absorbed in small continuous amounts. citracal slow release continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. citracal slow release.

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it's time now to "clear the air." and because we've heard to many half truths and outright lies from the romney campaign, we thought we'd end with a brief translation of paul ryan's latest ad, which helpfully begins with a question. >> how would you fix the tax code? it's a mess. >> hard working taxpayers like you deserve a common sense tax code. >> translation, we are proposing a 20% tax cut and the nonpartisan tax policy center says that people earning over a million dollars would get an additional $175,000 a year but 95% of americans would actually see their taxes go up.

>> fair means eliminating loopholes and handouts that go to high income earners and the politically connected. >> translation, we refuse to name any of the deductions and handouts because even if we stopped all of them, our budget still wouldn't add up and we know that nobody would vote for us if we told the truth about the loopholes we plan to close. >> america should be a place where if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead. >> translation, mitt romney supports an unregulated financial services industry where there are no rules, and just like the financial crash of four years ago, people should continue to make millions of dollars from fraud and other corrupt practices. >> i'm paul ryan, and i approve this message. >> i'm martin bashir, and i wouldn't trust a word that mr. ryan just said. thank you so much for watching. chris matthews and "hardball" is next.